Sydney commuter wins Frequent Visitor Award
This year the visitation record was held by bull shark no. 795, writes our 'Hello Fish' columnist Duncan Leadbitter
Each tagged shark has a unique number and so each year I have been allocating a frequent visitor award. On one level, it’s a bit of fun but it’s also interesting to get a sense of whether there are patterns of behaviour.
Bear in mind that, as per last month’s article, there is a lot of variability from year to year and I only analyse one listening station.
On the flip side, it’s amazing that the listening stations pick up as many sharks as they do given that they have such a small detection zone (about 0.5 square kilometres).
So, for 37 listening stations in 12,600 square kilometres of NSW state waters (2,100km coastline out to 6km offshore) that’s about 0.15% of state waters listening for tagged sharks.
Unlike last year, when one great white visited 10 times, this year four whites visited twice and the rest only once.
This year the visitation record was held by bull shark no. 795. Those with an eye for detail will remember this shark as not only the most frequent bull shark visitor from last year but the winner of the inaugural award in 22/23 and the first shark to turn up two years in a row, and now three.
No. 795 was also dubbed a Sydney commuter as it was previously detected off Sydney beaches several times before checking out Stanwell Park. But 795 has a more complex swimming history, having done a tour of the Mid North Coast in the 23/24 sampling year before spending a busy month in January 2025 between Sydney and Shellharbour.
The detection buoys collect a lot of data. There have been some detailed scientific papers produced but it’s not that clear how all this protects bathers.
I often sit on the headland at Stannie and talk with the boardriders, most of whom simply ignore the pings, if they even have the app.
For the swimmers, the lifeguards and life savers have their tower and their jet skis to protect those who swim between the flags.
